DSWD-7 disburses over P362.1M cash stipend for indigent senior citizens in C.Visayas

CEBU CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VII has disbursed P362,110,000.00 to the 112,515 indigent senior citizens (SC) in Central Visayas who received Php 3,000.00 cash stipend each for the second semester of 2020 as of November 4, this year.

According to DSWD-7 regional information officer Leah Quintana that the total number of indigent senior citizens in Bohol province who received the Php 3,000 cash stipend is 15,603 and Cebu has 71,515 SCs while Negros Oriental has 25,397 senior citizens with payouts in coordination with the local government units (LGUs) and the DSWD-7 staff assigned in the respective LGUs.

To ensure that the senior citizens will not travel far, the payouts are held in their respective barangays or in some cases barangays are clustered by proximity.  Senior citizen and other staff are urged to still follow the minimum safety protocols during the social pension payout, Quintana said.

DSWD-7 also clarified that those who are fragile and sickly are not required to personally claim their stipend during the payout.  According to the guidelines of the Social Pension Program, the nearest relatives of the social pensioner can claim the stipend if they bring with them an authorization letter and their identification cards as authorized representatives during the payout.

Aside from the onsite payout, the stipend can also be delivered directly to the house for bedridden social pensioners, Quintana added.

The payout for the remaining number of indigent senior citizen including Siquijor province is targeted to be completed within November with 279,037 total social pensioners for Central Visayas.

As specified in the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 or RA 9994, seniors qualified to receive the monthly stipend under the Social Pension Program are those who does not have a permanent source of income or financial assistance.

Those with no regular support from family or relatives for his/her basic needs, frail, sickly or with disability, and without any pension from Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Phil. Veterans Affairs (PVAO), Armed Forces and Police Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. (AFPMBAI) or any other insurance company.

Quintana said that the Social Pension Program provides government assistance to indigent senior citizens in the amount of Php 500.00 monthly stipend to augment their daily subsistence and medical needs.